Displacement

I recently read an article, "Displacement as trauma and trauma as displacement in the experience of refugees," by Monica Luci, about displacement and trauma, the impacts on survivors, the scars it leaves. There was a passage that talked about the "irreversible loss of  home," and explained how: 

"There is a powerful sense of rightness in being at home: safety, meaningful connections to others, nurturing and stability, and other conditions that favour growth and prosperity. Home is where one dwells, concretely and metaphorically: it is the core of our existence as human beings, something very fundamental and also very symbolic."

Displacement. Again, I struggle with words that are not strong enough, that cannot adequately communicate the depth and full spectrum of all they are intended to encompass. How is this word supposed to capture the full extent of the damage and impact, its physical, psychological and emotional effects, its legacy of intergenerational trauma, the ever-present anxiety, its instillation of fear? No safety. No rest. 

The specter and reality of displacement looms heavily over every Palestinian, no matter where they may be. They carry it in their bodies, in their hearts, in their families. 

Displacement is a form of violence. It is integral to this genocide. Displacement is stressful and traumatizing. It is a tortuous harmful infliction, an expensive and painful process, something that carries the weight and feeling, the devastation and loss of previous displacements. Displacement is traumatic, dangerous, difficult, and filled with suffering.

This article goes on to explore the relationship between one's home and one's sense of self, and also touches on not just the trauma of displacement, but how trauma can also cause displacement within one's own self--the trauma of displacement, of the displacement within one's own self, in addition to their displacement from their physical exterior environment. 

"...there is an inner displacement in the self due to a dramatic change in the interplay between inner and outer worlds that profoundly alters the previous organization between the ego-complex and other autonomous complexes. The word displacement derives from the French deplacer, which is ‘the removal of something from its usual place or position by something which then occupies that place or position’. Other meanings of the word are more technical, but the emphasis is always on not only the movement, but the extraction of something from a natural place and its substitution/replacement by something else. There is implied in the meaning a sense of territorial contention..."

The removal of something from its natural place by something which then occupies that place. Displacement. Occupation. Trauma. Words that contain and carry more than they can hold, for people who are enduring more than anyone should ever have to experience. Luci also talks about the split that can happen, how trauma can divide a person's self.

"Often what happens in trauma is that, when psyche and soma are forced apart, their cohesion is sacrificed to the need to survive psychically, and the body insists on witnessing what the mind cannot bear. This means that memories are encoded in the most primitive way, as motoric or sensory body memories divorced from emotion and cognition, which are easily aroused after trauma."

Every family I speak with in Gaza--every single one, not only the eight families who I am most committed to, but dozens and dozens of families--have all witnessed and been exposed to extreme violence and experienced trauma, and have all been forcibly displaced multiple times. And it is happening again, right now, as Israel is expanding its violence and moving forward with its plan to completely destroy Gaza City and the surrounding areas, terrorizing and targeting civilians without any pretense or guise, flying drones nearby to enhance psychological terror, drones that play gleefully threatening audio messages exclaiming, “Wait and see, people of Gaza, wait for what’s coming to you!” ensuring there is no rest, no safety, not even a single moment devoid of fear or terror. 

Yesterday, the U.S. and Israel announced another deal between Israel and Boeing to purchase two Boeing-made KC-46 military aerial refueling tankers in a $500 million deal to be financed with U.S. military aid. The Israeli Occupation already uses four Boeing-made KC-46 aerial tankers in this genocidal war, but the Ministry Director General Amir Baram said in a statement on August 20, 2025 statement that the aircraft would "strengthen the military's long-range strategic capabilities, enabling it to operate farther afield with greater force and with increased scope." 

With greater force and increased scope. 

They are bombing children. They are bombing families. They are bombing every form of life, every structure, every piece of land and all who inhabit it. Every animal, every stone, every tree, every memory. And they have announced their intention to do this throughout Gaza. They are implementing a plan to completely destroy every remaining structure, every house, to travel street by street, to kill and uproot those who remain, to cut off water and food from those still in the north, and now with even more support from the U.S., they can do this with greater force and increased scope. 

To those who read these words, I ask if they make you feel as sick as they make me feel? And does this sickness compel you to act? And again I say, for those of us in the U.S., what is being done to the Palestinian people could not be happening without this country, without our taxes, our government, our institutions and businesses and media upholding this genocide, while also providing material support, political cover, and weapons of mass destruction. We bear responsibility, and we have a moral and human obligation to do all we can to end this. And we must also at the same time provide as much support as possible to those who are trying to survive. This is not charity. It is not us offering gifts. It is owed. It is the bare minimum of what we should be doing.

It is not an exaggeration for me to tell you that every single family is in more danger than they have ever been in before, and desperately needs all the support we can offer. We must do all we can.